By Dick Mittman
indy500.com

Thursday, May 22, 2003

Chip Ganassi brought together two young racing guns - Scott Dixon and Tomas Scheckter - from opposite ends of the world and knows how to describe his speedy drivers.

"Both of them drive like they stole their cars," Ganassi said with a laugh.

Both drivers are 22 and quite capable of winning the 87th Indianapolis 500-Mile Race on May 25 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Dixon hails from Auckland, New Zealand - he was born in Brisbane, Australia - and drives the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz G Force/Toyota/Firestone. He qualified fourth fastest on Pole Day with a speed of 230.099 mph and earned the annual American Dairy Association Award as the fastest rookie.

Scheckter, a native of Cape Town, South Africa, returns for his second "500" driving the identical No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz G Force/Toyota/Firestone. He qualified 12th at 227.769 mph. Last year, he led the most laps, 85, in the race before a crash on Lap 173 took him out in 26th position.

In Miller Lite Carb Day runs Thursday, Dixon was fifth fastest at 227.714 mph and Scheckter was ninth at 226.358.

"I think we're both very competitive and basically all we want to do is win," Dixon said. "I think it just makes us work harder as we try to beat each other, which helps the teams. I think Chip did it for a reason, and it seems to be working so far."

The two aggressive drivers work well together, Scheckter said.

"He's a good guy, he gives good feedback," said Scheckter, whose father, Jody, former Formula One World Champion, arrives Friday in Indy to watch his son race in the "500."

"All we are concerned about is that our team does well and that we help each other improve the cars. He's driving the car on the limit all the time. With my prior teammates, sometimes you can't get good feedback, but we both drive the car pretty hard. The feedback we get is very good."

Compared to last year, Scheckter's month of May has been conducted almost in anonymity. As an IRL IndyCar^TM Series rookie in 2002, Scheckter and car owner/driver Eddie Cheever were at odds from the season opener at Homestead-Miami when the young driver bumped his boss' car and sent it into the wall. The season ended with them splitting with two races remaining.

"I'm happy," Scheckter said. "I'm glad it's a quiet month. Maybe it's good, because I kept (out of the way) of (the media) not being completely up front all the time.

"I've stayed out of the limelight, and that's given me a lot of time to concentrate about the race and what I have to think about. Hopefully, on Sunday it pays off."

If there's been a change in Scheckter, it came before he signed to drive for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, Ganassi said.

"I haven't found him to be at all like he was made out to be last year," Ganassi said. "I mean, I find him to be a young, hard-working, diligent guy. He realizes he's not there and has a lot of things to learn. It's a nice surprise to find him not to be like he was made out to be last year in the press.

"At the same time, Scott's a quiet guy and kind of lets his driving do the talking."

Dixon talked Thursday about being disappointed with his qualifying run that came .0626 of a second shy of putting him on the front row. He said he felt "we left a little on the table."

"I think we'll race a bit better," he said. "The race car seems very good. We've got good speed. We'll just take it easy, make sure we're there at the end. Hopefully, we can race 500 miles and come out on top."

Rookie drivers sometimes say they'll look at Indy as just as another race. After spending his first month at the track as a driver, Dixon admits that the history, the time at the track and people make Indy different.

"It's definitely something very special," he said.

Scheckter learned that last year. In the race, he stormed into the lead and was charging toward victory when his car crashed into the SAFER Barrier in Turn 4.

"I learned Indy's an animal," Scheckter said. "It changes so quickly, and you have to make sure you've got a car that you can do 500 miles in any condition."

Scheckter qualified two spots behind his starting spot of last year but said he is happy with his 12th grid position. He doesn't see himself getting into any wheel-to-wheel battles in the early running and said his goal is to get safely and swiftly through his pit stops and make sure he is around for the last lap.

"I think maybe I've learned a little bit," he said. "Last year I was qualifying the car in the race. It was just every lap I was sideways. People I spoke to said it looked like I was going to go off every lap, but that's the way I sort of drove.

"But I think this year I will use that when I need that, and that's the last 20 laps."

Scheckter showed some of that spectacular driving last July at Michigan International Speedway when he drove through and around all the front-runners in the final 30 laps to score his first IndyCar Series victory. Dixon earned his first IndyCar Series victory in his first career series start, in March at Homestead-Miami.

Dixon, whose parents, Ron and Glenys, are in Indianapolis to watch the race, starts right behind Marlboro Team Penske's Helio Castroneves, who tries from the pole for a third straight Indianapolis 500. Dixon said he wouldn't challenge Castroneves at the beginning.

"It's such a long race, and there's no point in throwing it away," he said.

Related Stories

• Indy 500 Winner Dixon Hits Jackpot At Vegas Title Celebration
• Indy 500 Grill Opens At New Indianapolis International Airport

• News Index
• Print This Page
•